INDEED, these are rough times for the Igbo race Nigeria but
which ethnicity would readily and really accept that she is enjoying the
country even when they visibly derive more than others?
Truth is that whining, moaning and even giving up on the
country are not the solution. Complaining and accusing other Nigerians of
marginalisation are equally as weak as kicking the air without pausing to
thoroughly study the development.
Igbo has a lot more than many see going for her than most
other Nigerian ethnic blocs. Even the non-deserning and seldom circumspect can
sense more positive tendencies of Igbo race than the usual belladonna and
bedlam bandied the streetwise Igbo person.
When their enemies hunt for prey they hound and taunt the
Igbo with such tags as rowdy ‘money-miss-road.’ Should the issue in purview be
politics, the Igbo is described as political neophyte with legendary knack for
political naivete, greed for power and positions (even the most trivial) and
lack of sophistication in political correctness and human mobilisation.
Socially, he is oft derided as crude and uncouth native person with a
phenomenal penchant to infest his environment with all manner of norms and
indigenous ethos that seem inherited from dark ages. In business circles, even
those who envy his unrivaled trading and financial skills (and that is indeed
every other fellow) would disparage him as a hustler with all the traits of a
daredevil rave. In some non Igbo societies, he is deemed and most times treated
as a criminal just because he succeeds fast in business.
Generally, the Igbo person’s presence anywhere, among other
Nigerians tends to evoke currents of fear and unseen but obvious energy that
tends towards hate and suspicion. Even the Igbo person is not kind with himself
when found amid the rest. Instead of being ensconced he often comes across as
edgy and uncomfortable.
But who would blame him? Once beaten, twice shy. If you hail
from a country where you are sure you are a freeborn but you find yourself a
second cadre citizen once you grow to an age of awareness and you discover
(often through real hard knocks of Nigerian life may be in school admission,
job recruitment, career rise, appointments, contract award, politics or
whatever endeavour you hold dear and thought your country would give to you by
merit) you could respond to the shock like the typical Igbo person.
A lone Igbo person faced with such hostility is bound to
exhibit some psychological reserves if not complexes that tend towards
inhibition and some other withdrawal syndrome. He could in some extreme cases
be led to crime given his sense of being socially excluded or unfairly
marginalised in his homeland. With this sort of high sensitivity to such social
disadvantage and harsh relegation to the background, he could act like any
animal (man inclusive) with back to the wall.
Crime theorists such as Kramer (1998) and Seigel (2006) among others have established ample link
between social exclusion and crime. Researches in the area have demonstrated
that there are criminal activities that actually result from the operator’s
rebellion against social discrimination. “Social exclusion” states Wikkipaedia,
“is a major cause of crime and re-offending.”
However, crime can never be a rational response of the Igbo
person to his society for whatever level of marginalisation because crime is
not just a taboo but an unforgivable sin in Igbo belief system. An Igbo
aphorism states thusly: Ohi na- aru madu. O na-eme afa ya echie (Stealing
taints a person. It tarnishes his name forever). So marginalisation offers the
Igbo no excuse for crime.
Truth is that Igbo is not the only race to suffer this
subjugation. There are Jews, Irish, Hutus, Kurds among others. What matters
here is a study of how the various ethnic blocs responded to it and how they
fared thereafter. Igbo has survived pogrom and various forms of targeted class
or sectoral extermination. She should derive strength from the sense of
invincibility and universal suffrage the rare history offers her and forge
ahead to conquer all other current odds which are comparatively minor.
The Jews did. As the social science scholar, Evgeny Finkel
captured in his 2017 book ‘Ordinary Jews Choice and Survival During the
Holocaust’ the persecuted Jews of Europe
explored the odious and extremely bitter opportunity their extermination by
Germany in the middle of the 20th century to evolve among other big feats: a
great Jewish nation, Israel that the entire Gulf Region cannot suppress; a
great Jewish economy that wields power and influence in almost all nations of
the world, from the same Germany to Russia, United Kingdom, the United States
and across Asia, Africa and Australia; a formidable Jewish voice in the United
Nations, and a Jewish country that rules the academia, business and the space.
This was a race that Adolf Hitler almost cleared totally from earth.
Prof. Finkel shows how Jewish responses during the Holocaust
shed new light on the dynamics of genocide and political violence while equally
explicating the enduring powers of strategic resilience.
His book presents a rich “framework for understanding the
survival strategies in which Jews engaged: cooperation and collaboration,
coping and compliance, evasion, and resistance.
Through Finkel, a professor of international affairs at the
John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, one reads how
Jews’ behavior in three Jewish ghettos, Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok, despite
Nazi genocide and prewar policies that
either promoted or discouraged their integration into non-Jewish society turned
the Jewish race around for the better. The Jews simply resolved that never
again will they be so treated. They looked inward and saw the positives in the
Judas Gospel which the Nazi Holocaust offered them. Today Israel is a success
story.
Finkel’s ‘Ordinary
Jews Choice and Survival During the Holocaust’ which won the 2018 Alexander L.
George Book Award, International Society of Political Psychology and the 2018
Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies of the Association
for the Study of Nationalities makes it evident that while possible survival
strategies were the same for everyone, it depends largely on the choices
individuals make to either sink or swim amid such difficulties.
Races have the choices confronting their danger and trying
to survive without pandering to the cowardly escapism of leaving the land of
their initial odd fate as most people who currently bandy Igbo escape from the
Nigerian union tout.
Amid State repression before World War II, the local Jewish
communities that were subject of the inhumanity, strategised and determined the
viability of anti-Nazi Jewish resistance and stock to it.
Author of ‘Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams’
Charles King, observed thusly after reading Finkel: “Why do only some people
targeted in genocide fight back?
In this sensitive and original investigation, Evgeny Finkel
shows that resistance to violence is a function of the skills and habits at a
community’s disposal. Finkel reveals the pattern of constrained choices that
drove communal behavior during the Holocaust and, in the process, returns the
idea of agency to discussions of victimhood and survivorship.”
The comment of Nancy Bermeo of the University of Oxford further buttresses the value of constructive
resistance. Her comment: “How do people
react when they are targeted for genocide? Who cooperates with the killers? Who
resists? Who flees and who simply tries to cope? In Ordinary Jews, Finkel’s
answer combines compelling historical evidence, convincing theory, and a moving
narrative. This is a truly extraordinary book—rich with lessons for us all.”
The lesson for Igbo here is to think thoroughly through
their current Judas gospel and invent a winning fomular. For apt response to their woes, Igbo should
think with clear head on their engagement with Nigeria; strategise and act
decisively on the matter.
First, Igbo has to resolve, collectively or largely to
commit herself to a better future. Then, work hard, mentally, philosophically
and practically to achieve it over generations. The resolve should be very
concrete and widely accepted that all vital sectors of the Igbo society would
passionately stick to the plan even as given the requirements of the economy
and socio-political times there should be room for tactical flexibility.
Second, Igbo should evolve a political habit that is
consistent with the political dynamics of contemporary Nigeria. The new
political trend which must be built around the beneficial tendencies of Igbo
society both at home and diaspora should be dutifully made clear and
understandable to the people, no matter their class.
Third, some people, especially in political and professional
leadership positions must volunteer for love of the land and the future
generation to be foot soldiers and champions of the new Igbo cause.
Ndi Igbo must equally sacrifice their ego and so often touted
fallacy, “Igbo enwe eze” (Igbo have no king) or their so called “republican
nature” to venerate their genuine leaders because ‘e too dike n’nke o mere, o
mekwa ozo’ (if you praise a hero for a feat he posted, he will strive to do yet another one).
Finally, Igbo should build on their currently existent but
largely untapped unique, regular town union and age grade meetings. The latter,
which Adiele E. Afigbo described as a peculiar socio-economic ladder in Igbo
culture can be expanded beyond towns and local councils to serve as
generational platforms for paradigm shift in the larger Igbo land.
Pause and ponder the strenghth Igbo has in the economy –
from the manufacturing to the retail chain. Think about the strenghth and
social influence of the race in numbers across the country and beyond even if
the electoral bodies census data fail to state ethnicity.
Think, think… Igbo think. Whip not tears. Think.
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